Everything about Mrs Beeton totally explained
Isabella Mary Beeton (
née Mayson;
12 March 1836 –
6 February 1865), universally known as
Mrs Beeton, was the principal author of
Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management and is the most famous
cookery writer in British history.
Background
Isabella was born at 24 Milk Street,
Cheapside,
London,
England. Her father, Benjamin Mayson, died when she was young and her mother, Elizabeth Jerram later married again Henry Dorling, who was a widower and had four children of his own. They lived in
Epsom,
Surrey where Henry was Clerk of Epsom Racecourse. Isabella was sent to school in
Heidelberg,
Germany, where she became an accomplished pianist. Afterwards she returned to Epsom.
Marriage and career
On a visit to London, she was introduced to
Samuel Orchard Beeton, a publisher of books and popular magazines, whom she married on
10 July 1856 at Epsom Parish Church. In August of that year they moved into their first home, a large
Italianate property at 2 Chandos Villas on the Woodridings Estate in
Hatch End,
Middlesex.
Their first child, Samuel Orchart, was born in May 1857 but died of croup in August of that year. In September 1859, their second son, also named Samuel Orchart, was born.
During her time in Hatch End she began to write articles on cooking and household management for her husband's publications. In 1859–1861, she wrote a monthly supplement to
The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine. In October 1861, the supplements were published as a single volume,
The Book of Household Management Comprising information for the Mistress, Housekeeper, Cook, Kitchen-Maid, Butler, Footman, Coachman, Valet, Upper and Under House-Maids, Lady’s-Maid, Maid-of-all-Work, Laundry-Maid, Nurse and Nurse-Maid, Monthly Wet and Sick Nurses, etc. etc.—also Sanitary, Medical, & Legal Memoranda: with a History of the Origin, Properties, and Uses of all Things Connected with Home Life and Comfort.
The Beetons left Hatch End in the autumn of 1861.
In December of that year their son was taken ill with
scarlet fever while on holiday in
Brighton. He died on New Year's Eve. Mrs. Beeton gave birth to two other sons, Orchart (on New Year's Eve in 1863) and Mayson Moss (in January of 1865).
Their home at Hatch End was destroyed by a German bomb during an
air-raid in September 1940 and the site is now occupied by a parade of shops. However, they're still remembered in the name of a nearby road, Beeton Close.
Book of Household Management
Popularly known as
Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, it was essentially a guide to running a
Victorian household, with advice on
fashion,
childcare,
animal husbandry,
poisons, the management of
servants,
science,
religion, and industrialism.
Of the 1,112 pages, over 900 contained
recipes, such that another popular name for the volume is
Mrs Beeton's Cookbook. Most of the recipes were illustrated with coloured engravings, and it was the first book to show recipes in a format that's still used today. It is said that many of the recipes were actually plagiarised from earlier writers (including
Eliza Acton), but the Beetons never claimed that the book's contents were original. It was intended as a guide of reliable information for the aspirant middle classes. Mrs Beeton is perhaps described better as its compiler and editor than as its author, many of the passages clearly being not her own words.
Early death
The day after the birth of her fourth child, in January 1865, Isabella contracted
puerperal fever. She died a week later, aged 28. Her husband lived for another twelve years and died of
tuberculosis in June 1877 at the age of 46.
Both are buried at
West Norwood Cemetery in south London under a simple
headstone.
The Secret Life of Mrs Beeton
In 2006,
BBC television broadcast a biographical drama,
The Secret Life of Mrs Beeton, with
Anna Madeley in the title role. This tended to emphasise Mrs Beeton's
feminist credentials, as well as playing on the assumption that many viewers would have been unaware of her relative youth when she wrote her books and her early death.
The TV drama seemed to imply the speculation (put forth in Kathryn Hughes' biography) that Beeton suffered from
syphilis contracted from her husband, and that this may possibly have led to her death and those of her two children, although there's no firm evidence for this speculation. It was directed by
Jon Jones.
Gallery
Image:Edm1869.jpg|Fashion plate from The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine, 1869
Image:Bhm title.jpg|Cover of Book of Household Management
Image:Bhm chap 1.jpg|First chapter of Book of Household Management
Image:Puddingsbhm.jpg|Illustration from Book of Household Management
Bibliography
- Susan Watkin: Know Your Onions or Mrs Beeton’s Hinterland, Lulu Press, 2006.
- Kathryn Hughes: The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs Beeton, 2005, ISBN 1-84115-374-5
- Margaret Beetham:A Magazine of Her Own?: Domesticity and Desire in the Woman’s Magazine, 1800-1914. London, 1996.
- Michael Hurd: Mrs Beeton’s Book, a Music-Hall Guide to Victorian Living, London, 1984.
- Sarah Freeman: Isabella and Sam: The Story of Mrs Beeton, London: Victor Gollancz, 1977.
- Elizabeth David: Isabella Beeton and Her Book, in: Wine and Food, Spring 1961.
- H. Montgomery Hyde: Mr. and Mrs. Beeton, London: George S. Harrap & Co, 1951.
- Nancy Spain: Mrs. Beeton and her husband by her grand niece, London: Collins, 1948. Later: Beeton Story (1956).
References
Further Information
Get more info on 'Mrs Beeton'.
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